FUSELAGE CONSTRUCTION - Page 25.

October 6, 2003:  I have recently disassembled the center / forward section of the fuselage to dimple and deburr the rivet holes in preparation for priming all those parts and skins.  I also countersinked the stiffeners and longerons that support the outer skin of the airplane.  I found one rivet that I had omitted in the tail cone, and one hole in the right longeron that I had missed when I was drilling as shown on page 24.  I have gone over all the pieces and I feel that I am ready for another priming session.  I will take some pictures of the pieces on the driveway when I have that session.

I finished drilling the rudder pedal brackets to align the brake pedals as you can see in the two photos below.  The whole assembly is upside down.  It hangs from two side stiffeners near the firewall when it is installed in the fuselage.

Here is an end view showing the alignment of the rudder bars, and the alignment of the brake pedals.

October 11, 2003:  Back to work at last!   The weather was still overcast today, but no rain to stop my priming session.   Here you can see the primed fuselage parts and longerons on the butcher's paper spread on the driveway.

I managed to paint the steel steps and the brake pedals with a high-gloss enamel paint.

By the end of the day I had worked 8.7 hours on the airplane.  The reassembly is underway with the aft section joined to the center section and the side skins back in place.  I still have to assemble the forward section stiffeners and doublers between the wing spar bulkhead and the firewall.   Total construction time now stands at 786.3 hours.

October 14, 2003:  The fuselage is back together with some rivets set, many more to go before I can roll this thing over to an "upright" position.   I will be working with my neighbor Ray to buck rivets for me in the near future.   I will keep you posted.  Here is the first picture after reassembly.   There are still a lot of clecos holding things together.  You can see that the double row of rivets joining the aft fuselage to the baggage area are set from the longerons up to the mid-rib area.  I will install the steps when the thing is upright.